Updated at 10:45 p.m.: SIOUX CITY, Ia. Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann dropped hints about her recent fundraising exploits and suggested she would boycott an upcoming Republican caucus in visits to western Iowa on Thursday.

Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, told reporters here Thursday night that she collected donations from 92,000 supporters in the third fundraising quarter at an average of $42 each. That likely puts her total haul somewhere short of $4 million — well behind opponents like Rick Perry (who’s claimed donations around $17 million) and Ron Paul ($8 million).

She also said she would boycott the Nevada caucuses in a show of support for New Hampshire’s status as the nation’s first presidential primary. Nevada has moved its caucus date to Jan. 14, putting pressure on the traditional nominating calendar in which Iowa’s caucuses go first, followed by New Hampshire’s primary.

(Clarification: an earlier version of this story said Bachmann would boycott the candidate debate in Nevada next week. Bachmann will attend the debate; confusion arose during a press conference Thursday evening in which Bachmann responded to a question about the debate with an answer referring to the caucus.)

Bachmann also delivered her campaign messages Thursday in visits to Denison and Morningside College in Sioux City.

In Denison, she offered her views on economics, foreign policy and distaste for government to about 70 potential voters and caucus supporters at an outdoor event on a golf course.

Bachmann argued that taxes are too high, and called for a return to the tax policies of the 1980s.

“We had an economic miracle in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan,” Bachmann said. “I want to bring those positive solutions into the tax code.”

Later, Bachmann clarified that she supported bringing back policies like those enacted in the Economic Recovery Tax Act, of 1981, known as ERTA, which slashed income, corporate, investment and estate taxes.

But Reagan-era rates of income taxation for both the top and bottom tax brackets were actually higher than current rates, even after the 1981 cuts.

Following ERTA, taxpayers in the highest income bracket were taxed at 50 percent — while today the highest rate is 35 percent. Taxpayers in the lowest bracket, meanwhile, paid income taxes at rates ranging from 11 to 15 percent between 1981 and 1989; today they pay 10 percent, according to data from the National Taxpayers Union.

(A campaign spokeswoman clarified that Bachmann wanted to follow Reagan’s “blueprint,” not the specific rates implemented during his presidency.)

Turning to what she called excessive federal regulations, Bachmann called for the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. departments of education and energy, all of which she said levied regulations that stifled business growth.

On energy, Bachmann argued strongly for increased domestic energyproduction. She described visiting the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge — the pristine nature reserve that has been a flashpoint for arguments over U.S. energy policy for years — and dipping her toes in the Arctic Ocean. The visit, she said, convinced her that energy should be harvested from the site.

“ANWR — it is the most perfect place on the planet to drill for oil,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann also voiced her disapproval for U.S. military involvement in Libya, harkening back to George Washington’s advice to avoid foreign entanglements. Bachmann went on to suggest the United States should demand reimbursement from Libya and Iraq for the cost of its military operations in those counties.

“In the United States we should be demanding both from Libya and from Iraq that they take their oil revenues and they use that money to pay the United States back for the treasure and the toil that we spent to liberate those countries,” she said, to applause.

Before Bachmann’s arrival, Tom Spencer of Denison said he was looking for a Republican candidate in the Ronald Reagan mold, with “honesty, integrity and common sense.” So far, he’s undecided, but he’s intrigued by Bachmann, Ron Paul and Rick Perry.

After hearing Bachmann’s pitch Thursday, Spencer said he was impressed, especially after she name-checked Reagan specifically.

“She hit all the points that I’m concerned about,” he said. Still, he said he wasn’t ready to commit to her or any other candidate.

In Sioux City, Bachmann delivered a much more economy-focused message to a college student-heavy crowd of about 100 at Morningside College.

After speaking briefly about her life – touching on difficult financial situations her family faced when she was a child and her early experiences as a Democrat supporting Jimmy Carter – Bachmann described several of her policy proposals. She called for cutting corporate taxes, repealing the federal health-care law passed in 2010 and increasing domestic energy production.

“Your generation could be the first generation that is so heavily burdened by taxes that you see a markedly lower standard of living than your parents have today,” Bachmann said. “That is not acceptable.”

Some students didn’t feel like she connected, though. Sarah May and Matthew Johnson, the president and treasurer, respectively, of the College Republicans at nearby Briarcliff College, said Bachmann didn’t do enough to tailor her economic message to the students in the audience.

“She didn’t really address how we’re going to get jobs for college students after college or repay student loans,” May said.

Nonetheless, May and Johnson were thrilled when Bachmanm posed for photos with them alongside a lifesize cutout of Ronald Reagan.

“Ronald Reagan goes to all of our events,” May said.

Bachmann’s visits to Denison and Sioux City were the first stops on a tour that will make a wide loop through central and northwest Iowa. She’ll appear in Sioux Center, Rock Rapids and Estherville on Friday before wrapping up with stops in Fort Dodge and Perry on Saturday.